This invention pertains to the handling and bundling of cast-iron pipes manufactured in centrifuging machines. More specifically, the invention pertains to the handling of pipes between a horizontal upstream transporter on which the pipes are placed head to tail in even numbers, an enlarged end mouth alternating with a uniform end of the adjacent pipe, and a downstream transporter which receives the pipes in odd numbered beds which are later piled in fagots.
In French patent application filed on Nov. 20, 1981 as No. PV 81 21 931 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,847) a method is described for rapidly piling beds of pipes onto a carriage in order to assemble pipe fagots. In another French patent application filed on Apr. 16, 1982 as No. PV 82 06 718 a method is described for placing the pipes head to tail on a horizontal transporter as they exit from the centrifuging machines in groups of two with their uniform and mouth ends side by side and not head to tail, wherein a pipe is occasionally removed after quality control because it does not meet specifications.
To assemble on the downstream transporter beds of head to tail pipes in even numbers when the pipes are already arranged head to tail in even numbers on the upstream transporter, a simple transfer of each group from one transporter to the next is adequate.
This invention addresses the problem of assembling on the downstream transporter beds of head to tail pipes in odd numbers with the pipes arranged head to tail in even numbers on the upstream transporter, therefore of transforming groups of even numbers into groups of odd numbers.
This problem might be resolved by transferring one by one the pipes from one transporter to another, but this would involve slow handling and is not adapted to a fast input of pipes in twos from centrifugal production. This might also create an obstruction between the upstream transporter which moves intermittently two steps at a time, one step equal to the interval between two consecutive pipes, and the downstream transporter which moves continuously.